Washburn University Board of Regents – May 11, 2007 Public Comment
FY 08 Capital Projects & Equipment Budget
KS law (KS 13-13a23) allows Washburn University to assess a property tax for construction or equipping buildings and for any other capitalized equipment or permanent improvements. The term “capitalized equipment” has been defined to include equipment directly related to the operation of a specific building.
KS University officials, including Washburn administrators, have recently approached the KS lawmakers requesting state funds for deferred maintenance. Deferred maintenance includes electrical, plumbing, heating, and cooling systems, roofs, floors and windows.
Yet here at Washburn, where the 3 mill property tax is collected in Shawnee County for buildings, and equipment and improvements for those buildings, the administration illustrates a very liberal interpretation of KS law by spending over 30% of these allocated funds on computers, printers, monitors, keyboards, software, furniture, and football uniforms – expenditures that would more appropriately be included in the operating budget.
And they do it with the blessing of this Board.
In the budget documents - capital improvements, equipment, technology equipment (pdf) - before you today, less than 50% of the 3 mill fund is budgeted for what is commonly considered to be deferred maintenance. Almost one third of these funds have been budgeted for the operating expenditures I previously mentioned – computers, software, furniture, football uniforms.
In February of this year, your executive director of university relations was quoted in the Capital Journal as reporting that this university had $20 million in unmet needs to maintain the university’s hidden infrastructure, citing the fact that the 3 mill fund was insufficient on an ongoing basis to meet the maintenance needs of this campus.
If 100% of the 3 mill fund collected for deferred maintenance were actually spent each year on these “unmet needs”, this shortfall of funds would not exist. In fact, for FY 08, you are considering holding back 20% of this source of funds in reserve.
I hope you are not a part of the hoax being played on the Shawnee County taxpayers lamenting the lack of funds for maintaining this campus. To demonstrate your good faith with us, please publish a list of the projects included in this $20 million “unmet need” and the projected timetable for completion. With another $1.5 million spent each year on deferred maintenance, rather than operating expenses, it is likely that all the deferred maintenance needs would be met with the current funding source provided by the Shawnee County taxpayers.
If you insist on getting aid from the State of Kansas, then please provide us with tax relief by reducing the mill levy on our property, rather than increasing your level of expenditures on needless projects such as water features.